72-01 originally had movable pickups that slid on brass rails. This provided a great deal of tonal flexibility and allowed Mr. Casady to fine-tune the "sweet spot" between pick-up placement, fingers and strings.

Since I did not have the budget (or patience) to explore recreating that feature, I opted for the next best thing - permanently placing the pickups where I thought they'd work best for me.

The unorthodox locations were a bit of a gamble, but I trusted the fine folks at Alembic to determine the exact best placement after I provided them with a rough idea of where I thought they'd work best.

As it turned out - it was perfect for me (and for the 32" scale of this bass).

The larger gap between bass pickup and fingerboard accommodates my rudimentary slap/pop technique and the bass pickup is placed just slightly behind where I naturally play most of the time. As a bonus, I can rest my thumb on the upper edge of the bass pickup when necessary.

Since this bass is heavy / dense (vermilion and purple heart are dense woods) and has ebony in the neck - there is no lack of low end or sustain and the Fatboy treble pickup allows me to dial in even more girth when needed.

I think of both pickups placed closer together as a kind of "super humbucker" and the blend / filter controls of the Signature electronics as tone controls that allow me to approximate how I think the sliding pickup system might have sounded.

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